Timothy TorresRoccat Ryos TKL ProRoccat's abbreviated version of the Ryos is a premium mechanical keyboard that comes with a choice of all major switch types and some sophisticated (if in places, overengineered) software.

Noisy if you go for certain switch types. Software confusing in places.

Bottom Line

Roccat's abbreviated version of the Ryos is a premium mechanical keyboard that comes with a choice of all major switch types and some sophisticated (if in places, overengineered) software.

Shopping for a PC-gaming keyboard these days? You'll almost certainly run across the term "tenkeyless" here and there. Get to know it: "Tenkeyless" is current keyboard-marketer lingo for a shortened keyboard that's had the right-side numeric keypad (with the 1 to 10 keys) lopped off.

Most major keyboard makers have gotten in on the tenkeyless game. Roccat is one; its $139.99-MSRP Ryos TKL Pro Gaming Keyboard is a mechanical tenkeyless keyboard suitable for gaming, regular old typing, and everything in between—perhaps typing e-mails between fragging foes in a windowed game of StarCraft. Few of us are so dexterous, but that's exactly who the Roccat Ryos TKL is ideal for: the crowd that can type "Quick brown fox" over and over without skipping a step in a shooter. Still, lesser mortals will like it just fine.

Keep in mind, though, since the Roccat Ryos is tenkeyless (the "TKL" in the name), it's decidedly not for accountants moonlighting as gamers. (Or vice versa.) The lack of a numeric keypad has a couple of ostensible advantages; it saves space on your desktop and allows your hands to be situated closer together during gameplay—something to keep in mind if you're strapped for desk space and decidedly not looking for a full keyboard solution. But you don't have those keys for number input, nor as a bank of re-programmable keys for macros and shortcuts.

If you need your extra keypad keys, then the Ryos TKL Pro probably shouldn't be your go-to typing apparatus. (Roccat does make a non-TKL Ryos, as well.) However, the TKL version does a host a bunch of other features beyond the cut-off design, including wonderful-feeling mechanical key switches underneath every key (as opposed to the common, squishy rubber-dome or membrane variety), customizable key illumination, remappable keys across the entire board (including the ability to map an additional, secondary function to most keys), and the option to assign over 400 macros and store them in the keyboard's own 2MB of flash memory.

That's not a bad bag of tricks in a compact design for $139.99, which is a pretty typical price for a backlit gaming keyboard in this class. And given that the Ryos TKL has been on the market for some time now, you can probably find it a bit cheaper if you hunt. (When we wrote this in mid-September 2015, we saw it online for around $119 to $129, depending on the kind of key switches in the individual model.)

If you can hack it, go for it. It will improve your game.

Mechanical Keyboards: The Basics

Let's go over a few basics about mechanical keyboards first. The most important distinction to make between mechanical and regular keyboards is the key switches that lie underneath every key. Regular keyboards use "rubber-dome" or "membrane" switches, which means they have a sheet of springy material or individual domes under each key that provides the springback force when you press a key. This kind of board tends to feel mushy and soft, without that loud "click" you will hear when striking certain varieties of mechanical keyboard keys.

Mechanical keyboards use switches (key mechanisms) with physical springs under each key, allowing for a defined kind of feedback and resistance. They're far more responsive, and they push back up more quickly. That makes them perfect for gaming, since many games, especially in the action and real-time-strategy genres, require split-second actions and decision-making.

One company, Cherry Industrial, is the acknowledged leader in mechanical key switches. The four most common switches it makes that are implemented in consumer keyboards are called Cherry MX Black, MX Blue, MX Brown, and MX Red. Each color indicates both the actual color of the switch underneath each key, as well as the degree of clickiness and resistance. For instance, MX Blue is very clicky, while MX Red is lighter and a bit less clicky. MX Brown is a good middle ground between the lighter Red and clickier Blue, while MX Black is a stiff, thumpy, hardy-feeling switch.

The Roccat Ryos TKL Pro Gaming Keyboard we reviewed uses the MX Brown switches, but you're not bound to that. Roccat also offers it in the MX Blue, Red, and Black varieties. So if you can get some hands-on time with the different switch types, you can get the one you like best.

Design and Features

The Ryos TKL Pro Gaming Keyboard is a wired keyboard design, outfitted with a 6-foot woven-fiber USB cable that connects to your computer…

No software is required to run it right out of the box, so you can plug it in and play right away, although Roccat does supply driver software that controls the customizable backlighting and programming macros. The keyboard works on Windows 7, 8, and 10, as well as older versions of Windows like Vista and XP. All you need is a USB 2.0 port and an Internet connection to install the driver software.

Its chassis measures 16 inches across and 9.2 inches front to back. It's a compact, angular, alien-looking thing that you may want to carry around in a bag with you if you're traveling from tournament to tournament, as it's a touch heavy and its wrist rest elongates the front of the keyboard by a decent margin. It's a solidly built keyboard that won't budge an inch when you slam it, and it does not take that much space on a desk. Your mouse pad can rest where the number pad ordinarily would be.

The actual body of the keyboard is black plastic, partially covered in a brushed-matte texture. The dark color scheme lends a brooding, stealthy personality to the device, as if this were the type of keyboard a secret agent or black-ops operator would use. (Or, you know, perhaps, a gamer.) It's tasteful enough, however, and the cool, blue-hued backlighting lends it a softer sort of temperament if you activate it.

The keyboard's integrated wrist rest cannot be detached, but, thankfully, it is comfortable to use. Roccat's huge, Blade Runner-font logo is etched into the wrist rest…

Nearby, three profile macro keys sit just below the space bar, above the logo. These are a major differentiator for the Ryos TKL: Roccat calls these "Thumbster" keys, due to their position below the space bar, within thumb's reach…

You can program these keys do to whatever you want, such as trigger a weapon change during a first-person-shooter match or shift the in-game field-of-view so you can get a better look at the action. Of course, those are just examples of what you can do; what you can actually do is dependent on the specific game you play.

Flipping over the Ryos TKL, the underside of the keyboard has a couple of grooves you can use to snake or store excess cable, as well as two sturdy flip-up feet that let you adjust the keyboard's angle. Rubber pads that keep the keyboard from skidding around occupy each of the underside's corners.

The keys are laid out how you would expect them on a standard keyboard, with the most notable exception of the number pad…

The keyboard ends to the right of the area where the cluster of Insert, Delete, Home, End, Page Up, and Page Down keys is located. The other notable absence is the Caps Lock key, replaced with a key labeled "[+]" with a down arrow on it. The default function of this key is what Roccat calls "EasyShift[+]." With it, you can designate secondary functions for many keys on the keyboard that execute when you press this special EasyShift[+] key and that key.

The idea is that if you're using the WASD keys for gaming, the EasyShift[+] key can be activated by your left pinky finger along with another key to activate a secondary function. You need to use the Roccat software to reprogram the keys to designate what these EasyShift[+] combos do.

Beyond that are the F1 through F12 keys that line the top, with a few multimedia controls included as Function keys. The Ryos TKL lacks any dedicated macro keys, but that's because any key can become a macro using the software. You also have the soothing, blue-LED internal backlighting that comes through the laser-etched lettering on each key. You can customize the lighting, but you can't change the color from blue. You can turn the lighting on or off, or make the lighting fade to your keystrokes or activate a splash effect. It's not the most sophisticated lighting implementation out there, with Corsair's RGB series of keyboards allowing for a whole rainbow of per-key lighting (See for example our review of the Corsair Gaming K65 RGB) and even makers like Tesoro, with its Excalibur Spectrum, or 800-pound gorilla Logitech, with its G910 Orion Spark, getting in on the multicolor-lighting game.

The keys, as described earlier, use mechanical MX Brown switches beneath them, which click and clack almost as noisily as a classic typewriter. (We didn't test Roccat's MX Blue, Black, or Red versions of the keyboard, but other MX Blue keyboards we have tried deliver even clickier, noisier response, while the other two tend to be more muted in their sound.) By themselves, the MX Browns deliver a good, loud, heavy sound, and it doesn't sound cheap, either. You hear the typing of someone on the Ryos TKL, and it sounds like the typing of a professional on a premium board. The feel is very satisfying, and the keys have a great tactile, high-end bite. However, depending on your living situation, you could end up annoying or outright waking roommates or significant others—even in its MX Brown iteration, the Roccat Ryos TKL is a loud keyboard, no question. (Noisy, even.) It's not deafening, but it's definitely hard to ignore.

Either way, we tried playing a variety of titles—Resident Evil HD Remake, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, and the real-time strategy game StarCraft 2—and found using the Roccat Ryos to be a pleasurable experience. That was particularly true for StarCraft 2, which benefits from the higher speed of response of the keys. You need to be able to make many Actions Per Minute (APMs) to succeed in that game, something that the Ryos TKL definitely allows. Playing Metal Gear Solid V, however, resulted in some weird stickiness: our avatar, Venom Snake, would sometimes become stuck in one action, like walking left for an extended period of time. That's more likely a glitch on the game's side, though, rather than anything wrong with the keyboard.

However, one design choice we wish Roccat implemented is the removal of the Windows key on the left side of the keyboard. In the heat of battle, it can be easy to press that key accidentally, which opens up the Start menu in Windows 7. If you want to crouch in a shooter like Counter-Strike: Go or in a game reliant on stealth like Alien: Isolation or Metal Gear Solid V, the key most dedicate to that action is the left Ctrl key, usually directly next to the Windows Start key. We would've appreciated if that key were on the other side of the keyboard, safely away from the action of the left hand. That said, you can disable the left Windows keys using the optional software. (Some competing gaming keyboards let you disable the Windows key via a hardware key combination, so this is a little more effort.)

Software

Using Roccat's driver software, you can configure macros and tinker with the Ryos TKL's backlighting to your liking, among a plethora of other options, but you'll need to download it from the Roccat main page first. Opening it, you may be overwhelmed by the amount of options available, which is great for how comprehensive it is, but a little confounding to wade though. Still, it's organized by tabs, which are easy enough to figure out, and once you spend some time inside the interface, it all becomes second nature.

The initial tab houses a lot of the main options, such as which key to set the EasyShift[+] key (a.k.a. Caps Lock) to, how to set the Function keys, and whether to enable or disable certain keys, such as the left Windows key, the Tab key, or the left Shift key. You can also set the backlighting illumination to a number of preset options, and reset the keyboard to its factory default settings.

The Key Assignment tab is where you can reprogram any key on the keyboard and assign secondary functions to any key. (The secondary function activates when depressing the EasyShift[+] key along with the designated key.) This is also where you can manage and record your macros.

The next tab over, Key Illumination, handles the keyboard's preset lighting options and allows you to reprogram the lighting of any key on the keyboard. It's a little exhaustive, but the tools are there for anyone who is that interesting in hyper-tweaking his or her backlighting.

The next tab is a little fluffier, as it's mainly an "achievement" system similar to Achievements on an Xbox console; Roccat calls it its "R.A.D." system. It tallies up your number of keystrokes and awards you virtual trophies for hitting certain levels. Silly, sure, but harmless.

The last tab is where you'll find information about the current software version you're using, and how to get in contact with Roccat for support.

The software also keeps track of all your settings through five profiles you can save or load at will.

Conclusion

The Roccat Ryos TKL Pro Gaming Keyboard is among the best keyboards we've tested in this category so far. Mechanical keyboards are simply pricey by nature, but for the price in that context, you get a lot. (The key switches are the most expensive part, so, of course, the Ryos TKL can effect some savings off an equivalent full-size mechanical board simply because it needs fewer of those pricey switches.)

In addition to laser-etched keys with backlit illumination, the Ryos TKL delivers convenient multimedia and Function keys, as well as the ability to turn basically any key on the keyboard into a macro key. The software is a little daunting at first, but once you get used to it, it's a breeze. And thanks to its tenkeyless design, the Roccat's form factor is fairly small, even though its wrist rest juts out a little more than on many boards we've seen. However, the wrist rest is actually useful.

The only downsides would be the lack of a number pad for gamers who also want to use this keyboard for productivity and work. But that's just the nature of a tenkeyless board; if you want to pay your bills and draw up Excel, you may want to keep a secondary keyboard around if you prefer using the number pad for those tasks. The other nitpick is similarly situational; if you're living with a spouse or you don't want to wake up sensitive sleepers, you may want to opt for something with less noisy keys, which likely means a membrane keyboard. The keys on the Roccat sound great and satisfying, but they also cause quite the clatter while typing normally. (You might also look into a mechanical keyboard with the option for Cherry MX Black switches, which are stiffer and tend to give off a quieter thud versus a higher-pitched click.)

While gaming (versus typing), perhaps the noise wouldn't be as much an issue, unless you're a StarCraft pro and you need to keep your APMs up. (In any case, it will be more an issue for your family or roommates, as you'll probably have a headset on.) All in all, though, if everyone around you can take the sound of it, the Roccat Ryos TKL Pro Gaming Keyboard shouldn't disappoint.

Roccat Ryos TKL Pro

Bottom Line: Roccat's abbreviated version of the Ryos is a premium mechanical keyboard that comes with a choice of all major switch types and some sophisticated (if in places, overengineered) software.

About the Author

Timothy Torres is a Junior Analyst on PCMag's consumer electronics team. He covers wearables, digital home, and various cool gadgets including the occasional video game. He has written all manner of copy for Computer Shopper, The Jersey Journal, Radio One, Random House, and 2D-X. Before entering the tech world, he attended New York University and w... See Full Bio

Roccat Ryos TKL Pro

Roccat Ryos TKL Pro

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